Shattered Expectations
by x.lunamire
Summary: Dawn is ecstatic to finally meet Misty. However, she's in for some disappointment, because what she imagined won't become reality. An Ash/Misty One-Shot. :33 of the 100-Theme Challenge:


**Title: **Shattered Expectations

**Prompt: **#33: Expectations

**Pairings: **Pretty big hinting of Ash/Misty. Next time it'll _be_ actual Ash/Misty. Maybe.

**Rating: **K

**Warnings: **Eh, not too happy with how it came out. Feedback, please! (Thanks to **Ronmione x3** and **Steveaaml **for your reviews). Check my profile; I'm itching for prompts and challenges here.

**Notes: **None.

Honestly… My writing _really _isn't quality enough for me to claim I own Pokemon.

--

"_What we call the beginning is often the end._

_And to make an end is to make a beginning." – _**TS Eliot**

--

"Umm… guys?" Dawn asked timidly, blue eyebrow raised. There were a lot of people staring at that point, and she figured it might be a good idea to speak up before it got worse. "Guys?"

But they just continued on like they hadn't even heard her apprehensive stammer. Misty had even grabbed a bottle of mustard from the rack on their table - Pikachu had long since stolen the ketchup - and was brandishing it over Ash's head like a weapon.

And it just figured that Ash and Misty - supposedly _Like OMG, BFFS! _- got along this way. With insults and violence and hair pulling and plastic weapons. Dawn had gotten herself ready for this friend-date-thing, for Mew's sake! She had gone so far as to put on one of her best dresses, all excited to finally become acquainted with one of Ash's oldest friends. She had been expecting a fancy dinner, where they would chat politely and after dinner Ash would confess his love to the redheaded imp currently strangling him over the top of their table.

Okay, so that last part had been somewhat of a far-off dream. Brock had gotten it into her head with his enigmatic suggestions that he muttered when Ash wasn't around.

"_And you should've seen his face when he saw her. It's like any moment one of 'em's just going to crack and they're gonna - "_

"Misty, let go! I can't breathe!" Ash spluttered, pulling dramatically at the hand she had contracted around his neck. Misty was still yelling - although she seemed a bit more subdued, seething through her teeth - and her victim kicked his legs violently beneath the table.

Dawn glanced warily around the restaurant; at the several women staring at them while mumbling into their cell phones, and the kids pointing and laughing. She doesn't know how to shut the Dreadful Duo up, but she wants to do it _now._

"Brock! Help me!" But Brock was seemingly un-phased by his friends' childish behavior. He flipped through his magazine while still watching the door for Potential Hot Girls. "Make them quiet down!"

"How do I do that?" he asked, sending a questioning glimpse in Pikachu's direction, and the mouse Pokemon merely shrugged. "Look, Dawn, I've been friends with these two for years now. And I have yet to find a way to end their little fights. You kind of just get used to it."

"There's gotta be some way..," Dawn whispered under her breath, glaring out the window. There's no way she came all the way to Cerulean just to watch these two argue.

"Oh, _I _remember you two!" And they were all looking at the Nurse Joy standing beside their table, her head tilted to the side and a smile on her face. "The two of you were fighting way-back-when when I first saw you, and you're still fighting now!"

Brock didn't even get a chance to jump out at her, since Misty already had his ear between her fingers.

_Wait, wasn't she holding a mustard bottle and Ash's neck at the same time…?_

"Pardon me, but we've seen a lot of Nurse Joys in our travels. So we don't..," Misty began as politely as one can with her fingers wrapped around her best friend's neck.

"Oh, of course not!" Nurse Joy said, unfazed. "I just remember that I told you, 'When two people fight, they really care about each other.' You seemed only verbally abusive then. So you _must _be at least dating now!" She smiled, obviously joking, and Brock and Dawn chuckled nervously, but for two people in hardcore denial like Ash and Misty, her words were torture. Misty dropped his neck like a Charizard's tail and Ash gasped for air.

"I don't think they'd admit it if they were," Brock said. Misty found her mustard bottle and bopped him over the head.

Before they knew it, Nurse Joy was giggling as she walked away and the five-some delved into awkward silence.

"Well I think - "

"_Don't. Say. A word, Brock!" _Misty growled through her teeth, waving the mustard bottle through the air.

"Don't point that at me, Misty, I thought Ash was your one-and-only?"

"_Shut up, Brock."_

"Misty, cut it out! Not in front of Ash! He'll fall into a jealous rage!"

Ash and Misty simultaneously slumped into their seats, looking anywhere but at each other. Brock turned his grin at Dawn.

"Well, look's like I found out how to do it."

Pikachu chortled over its bottle of ketchup and Dawn just rolled her eyes. They may have found a way to quiet things down, but she was more than a little exasperated. What had happened to her dream day?

She dropped her head down to the table, groaning, and tried to ignore Ash's foot striking her ankle.

He was aiming for his best friend of course.

--

[_"The end is where we start from…"_]

--Lunamire


End file.
